5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

OCEAN

Yes, OCEAN was the Wordle answer on August 25, 2023 (Wordle #797).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊ.ʃən//ˈoʊ.ʃən//ˈəʉ.ʃən/

Noun

One of the large bodies of water separating the continents.

Noun

Water belonging to an ocean.

“The island is surrounded by ocean”

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English *ocean, occean, occian, occyan, from Old French occean (later reborrowed or reinforced by Middle French ocean), from Latin Ōceanus, originally from Ancient Greek Ὠκεανός (Ōkeanós, “Oceanus”, a water deity). Displaced native Old English gārseċġ. Also commonly referred to as the ocean sea, the sea of ocean (compare Latin mare ōceanum; Old French mer oceane, occeanne mer).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it OHSHUHN.

Related meanings

Synonyms sea

In a sentence

I don't like the ocean.
© tatoeba.org contributor cntrational (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I want to see the ocean.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use OCEAN in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with OCEAN Open Word Finder

Wordle status

A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: August 25, 2023 (#797).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 25, 2023 (#797).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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OCEAN in Connections

3 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How OCEAN performs as a guess

OCEAN is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 90.6% of games, misses completely in 9.4%, and leaves about 120 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,186 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 guesses in games solved within six turns.

Try your feedback pattern

Tap the tiles to match your feedback, then see the ranked follow-up guesses.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

O___N O in the 1st position and N in the 5th position O__A_ O in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _C__N C in the 2nd position and N in the 5th position OC_AN O in the 1st position, C in the 2nd position, A in the 4th position, and N in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in OCEAN.

First-turn measures

All four describe OCEAN used as an opening guess. Entropy is the same idea as “avg ruled out” on a log scale: a higher number means the guess splits the possible answers into more, smaller groups.

5.03 Entropy (bits)
120 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How OCEAN performed in the previous complete opener benchmark, against its captured answer snapshot. These research figures are separate from today's solver recommendations. See the data page for the method.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#3,186 Rank among openers
Opening with OCEAN left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,186 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
76
3 guesses
927
4 guesses
1,131
5 guesses
201
6 guesses
17

Composition

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AENO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
91%
Green tile
20%
All gray
9%

Example solver route

R O A T E
C A M E O
O C E A N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches OCEAN in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

OCEAN can come back 105 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

245 answers
225 answers
202 answers
195 answers
187 answers
115 answers
80 answers
78 answers
66 answers
66 answers
64 answers
64 answers
59 answers
50 answers
45 answers
43 answers
38 answers
34 answers
28 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for OCEAN; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

O1C3E1A1N1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Try next

SIREE SPILT SLART ROOST TORSE STUNG

Strategy after playing OCEAN

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to OCEAN.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing OCEAN:

10% chance
Suggested:
SIREE
9% chance
Suggested:
SPILT
8% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

10.3% →
SIREE 5.36 bits
9.4% →
SPILT 5.71 bits
8.5% →
SLART 5.09 bits
8.2% →
SLART 5.27 bits
7.8% →
ROOST 5.30 bits
4.8% →
TORSE 4.53 bits
3.4% →
STUNG 4.76 bits
3.3% →
SETER 4.69 bits
2.8% →
TRIDE 4.64 bits
2.8% →
LURCH 4.71 bits

Research on OCEAN

Game-tree analysis and word research for OCEAN, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with OCEAN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #5,042 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with OCEAN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, because the two figures score different answer lists.

These figures come from exhaustive game-tree search and are exact for the NYT lists of July 2023 (3,158 answers). They do not use the site's working answer pool.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
OCEAN sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 50 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 92 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.3 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).